By JARROD POTTER
FINALS time faces Casey Cavaliers women with an 84-40 victory over Western Port sealing their post-season clash against Southern Peninsula.
Using the final home-and-away clash like a mini-final, coach Mark Holman instructed his charges to focus on execution and restrict the opposition’s offence – in anticipation of the required acts to stop the Sharks this Saturday at Cranbourne Basketball Stadium.
“Focus on execution – we know we had the edge on Western Port on age, size, speed – was more about getting through our offences, getting screens, cuts and movement off the ball – focusing more intently on that at half time,” Holman said.
“We set individual goals before the game – Southern Pen is a very offensively minded team – we set out to limit Western Port’s offensive game and limit them to single digit quarters and we did a good job of that.”
Holman praised his long-range bomber Jade Foot – who hit 3/5 from three-point territory to record 13 points for the match – as well as mind Steelers coach and centre Lauren Cooper defensively.
“Jade’s been playing really well lately,” Holman said.
“When her confidence is up defensively, she shoots the ball a lot better.
“She did a great job – Jade’s an underrated defender – she was there guarding Lauren Cooper and has done well on Southern’s import Jasmine Lovejoy previously.”
With all Cavaliers making significant additions to the stat-sheet, Holman singled out Alex Keates (18 points, six rebounds) and the captain Lara Pauline (six points, five rebounds, seven assists).
Lara’s been a bit quiet in the last few weeks and lifted herself and her team mates in a great all-round game,” Holman said.
“She dished off seven assists was getting everyone else involved and getting to the basket.
“Alex was moving very well and got into the right spots 18 points in 20 odd minutes.”
All eyes shift to the Southern Peninsula clash on Saturday night – with Holman wanting the Cavaliers to negate the Sharks offence at all costs, while maintaining their hard-running game.
“They’re very much offensively minded team with two players who do the majority of the damage,” Holman said.
“We shut them down last time and we’ve got the personnel to do that again.”
The women’s program at Casey continues its hyper-successful start to its existence, booking finals appearances in its first two seasons in the league.
While the season ended on Sunday for the Cavaliers men, they can take solace in affecting the finals in other ways – knocking out Western Port from the finals race with a 67-56 win.
Spreading the minutes and the point-scoring, the low-scoring match fell Casey’s way following quarter-time as their talls started firing.
The Cavaliers were led by Dean Johnson (12 points, seven rebounds), Dylan Wayman (12 points, five rebounds) and Jono Hawes (nine points, 11 rebounds).
The loss left the Cavaliers to finish seventh in the Big V Division 2 men’s competition this season with an 8-10 record.
